


Seventeen Guest House

by hoshiberry



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band), 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia, 방탄소년단 | Bangtan Boys | BTS
Genre: Alternate Universe - Quirks (My Hero Academia), Angst, M/M, Orphanage, Seventeen Mafia, Slow Burn, mafia
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-19
Updated: 2020-10-14
Packaged: 2021-03-07 18:34:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 16,944
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26542243
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hoshiberry/pseuds/hoshiberry
Summary: Four teenagers with special quirks run from their orphanage in hopes of finding a new home to live in. They stumble upon a place called "Seventeen Guest House", however, it looks like the guest house wasn't as normal as they thought it would be.
Relationships: Boo Seungkwan/Chwe Hansol | Vernon, Choi Seungcheol | S.Coups/Lee Chan | Dino, Hong Jisoo | Joshua/Yoon Jeonghan, Jeon Wonwoo/Kim Mingyu, Kwon Soonyoung | Hoshi/Lee Jihoon | Woozi, Wen Jun Hui | Jun/Xu Ming Hao | The8
Comments: 1
Kudos: 32





	1. Orphanage

“Remember, before dinner,” Wonwoo whispered, eyes on whatever he was writing. The orphan beside him nods and shares a glance with the person across him at their table. 

The plan was tonight. Wonwoo thought it was a fool-proof plan, because this time, they’re using their quirks. No jumping out windows, no silly excuses, no disguises. 

By far this was Wonwoo’s favourite plan. The guards and nuns may have their eyes on the three troublemaking orphans, but they’re not strong enough to stop them. 

“You guys can’t just… talk about running away in front of me and not expect me to join.” Chan, the fourth person on table 6 mumbled. He had eavesdropped on Wonwoo’s ingenious plan. “Please let me join! I have a quirk like you guys too!” 

“It was your fault for sitting with us.” Wonwoo ran a hand through his hair. 

“W-what?! It’s my fault that I don’t want to hang out with the allies of the demon?! You guys won’t wanna hang out with them, too!” Chan pointed to the screaming children in disbelief. “Please, let me join!” 

“I thought you wanted to be an office worker?” The orphan beside Wonwoo smirks, leaning on the chair he sat down on. He crosses his arms before continuing. “You’re just saying that so we would let you join.” 

“Jeonghan-hyung, I swear I won’t be a burden! I can look after myself!” Chan protested, his fists slammed on the table. The person beside him scoffs, Chan turning his attention to the grumpy teen. “S-sorry.”

“You’re delusional. Your quirk won’t be useful in this plan like ours,” the grumpy teen, also known as Jihoon, stops writing. “And without a useful quirk, you can’t join our escape plan. You’ll get us all caught.” 

“Y-yes, it might not be useful when fighting people, but I will be useful if I fight people with quirks!” Chan’s leg bounced up and down, as he pouted. “Jeonghan-hyung’s quirk is useless too!”

“I’m not useless, you-“ Jeonghan cuts himself off with a gasp, eyes widened. He should control himself. “There’s little possibility that we’re going to come across people with a quirk. Look, you don’t have to join. You kinda belong to the orphanage unlike us, you have a dream-“

“No! No! I want to join! Pleeaasee!” Chan pleaded, reaching across the table to hold Jeonghan’s hands. 

“Sorry, you lost all your chance. You called my quirk useless.” Jeonghan pouts childishly and huffs, making Chan frustrated. “Have fun being alone in your room tonight!”

“B-but- I will do well! I’m sorry for calling your quirk useless! I will not do anything dumb, I promise!”

“Ugh. Just let him join,” Jihoon pulled his knees to his chest, glaring at the other. Chan beamed at him, which made the older scoff. “Oh, please. I’m only considering it because your nagging is getting annoying."

Jeonghan slips his hands out of Chan’s grasp. “Don’t touch me. You called my quirk useless.” 

Chan chuckled, scratching his nape while mumbling an apology. “Sorry. So? Will you let me join?” 

A pause. “Answer me! Please! Please! Please-“ 

“Before dinner. Meet us in front to room 13, you can’t be late, got it?” Wonwoo growled, leaving the table. Jeonghan winks at a delighted Chan. Chan might’ve been annoying to Wonwoo too, so maybe he came to the same decision as Jihoon. 

“If you’re late, we’re not going to hesitate to ditch you!” Jeonghan chuckled, smiling at Chan. Chan nodes excitedly, turning to Jihoon and anticipating for some kind of word from him. Jihoon never spoke to Chan.

Chan gasps as he realises something. “Wait, I need to be early so I need to finish my studies now… I’m going!” Chan called, standing up, his chair creaking and the sound causing Jihoon to hiss.

“You think it’s a good idea to bring that kid?” Jihoon glanced over at Jeonghan. “If he’s too noisy or too excited, the plan might get spoiled. 

Jeonghan shrugged, smirking. “He might actually have a quirk like what he always says. Let’s just give him a chance, even Wonwoo did.” 

“Wonwoo just got annoyed.” 

“You’re cute~” Jeonghan reached over to pinch Jihoon’s cheek. As Jihoon slaps away Jeonghan’s hand, he smirked. Of course skinship would work. 

“Fine. But I will kill him if he does anything stupid.” Jihoon raised his index finger, curling it after. Jeonghan had realised that Jihoon had made the pencil in front of Jeonghan float towards him. He laughed, Jihoon always seemed to look cool with his quirk. 

“Sure, cute pie!” Jeonghan stood up, ruffling Jihoon’s hair as he passed by. The boy scoffed, Jeonghan pretending not to hear it. Jihoon could only leave the table himself too, after all, what was he going to do all alone in the living room without his friends? Play with the evil orphans? Nah.

* * *

“Wow, you’re here first!” Jeonghan clasps his hands, staring at a smiling Chan. The boy beamed, liking how the situation was turning out. “Okay, let’s go.” 

“Positions.” Wonwoo muttered. Chan didn’t know where his position was meant to be, so he just stood still. Of course, they hadn’t intended to bring Chan along so they didn’t have too much time to figure out the details for him. Luckily, he wasn’t the only one who stood still. Jeonghan was standing beside him, the plastered smile on his face never leaving. But where did the others go though? 

“Walk, Jeonghan.” A voice spoke from above them. Chan’s eyes widened, slowly looking up towards the ceiling to confirm who he thought it was. 

It was Wonwoo. Standing on the ceiling. What the heck?! That’s so cool! Chan had never seen Wonwoo in action before and he knew this wasn’t the time for squealing over it but— his gravity quirk was just so cool— 

“Don’t you dare squeal, kid.” Jihoon’s voice grabbed the young boy’s attention away from Wonwoo. Holy. Moly. Jihoon was _floating._ How could this day get any better after witnessing such a quirk like that? “Now, shall we?”

No sooner had those words left his mouth, various floating knives now suddenly behind him. Chan gasped in awe, his eyes widening even further, recognising that only half that belonged to the kitchen drawer. His hyungs were _amazing_ compared to him. Maybe they were right, and he should’ve stayed put in the orphanage. But after glancing over and seeing Jeonghan doing nothing, he immediately erased the thought. “It’s okay, Jeonghan-hyung, we can be uncool together.” Chan blurted out before he could process the words in his brain. 

“What?” The said person whirled around.

“ Nothing!” 

“Then let’s start walking,” Jeonghan instructed. Jihoon nods at both him and Wonwoo, turning and ‘walking’, floating inches off the floor as the knives followed him. Jeonghan and Chan walked together, while Wonwoo walked on the ceiling.

As expected, a guard dashed after them, calling out. 

“Hey, you three! Go back to the cafeteria!” The man growled, trying to grab Jeonghan. However, the other doesn’t budge, instead just standing there as if he was waiting for some miracle to happen, while Chan panicked. 

“H-hyung! You should-“

“Wonwoo, now!” Jeonghan called, cutting Chan off quickly. The said boy dropped down from the ceiling, wrapping his hands forcefully around the guard’s neck in one smooth motion. 

The commotion soon alerted the other guards, them running over at his call. This was when the exciting part of the plan happened. Chan was instructed by Jeonghan to stay behind him, so the only thing he could do was watch the fight between the guards and his hyungs. It practically finished as soon as it started, the boys standing over the limp bodies. 

Wonwoo doubted he had killed anyone, so it couldn’t have been that brutal. He was snapped out of his thoughts when Jihoon’s clear voice rang out. 

“Coast is clear, let’s go!” Jihoon called, running for the door and slamming his tiny body against it, the hinges breaking under his strength. The four froze, their run slowly to a stop at the sight of the outside world. Jeonghan breathed out, looking around at how beautiful everything was. 

_Wow._

However, as much as they just wanted to stand here and admire everything, they didn’t have too much time before the search parties would be sent out. “So… where will we rob?” Jeonghan spoke to the others, a small smile tugging at his lips. “That’s the plan, right? We don’t have any money for food or clothes, after all.”

“You think I’d know, you twat?” Jihoon gently landed on the pavement, still a little amazed that they had pulled off the brutal escape plan. But he could put all of that in the past now, for he was finally out in the world. He was _free._ “I’ve never been outside before.” 

“How about that?” Chan suggested, point to a two-story building that seemed much bigger than the orphanage. The neon lights that illuminated the sign was flickering, but it was enough for them to read the name of the building. “That looks like a good place.” The others turned to look at where Chan was pointing, carefully analysing the place in their heads. 

“We could steal some food, and maybe some other weapons,” Wonwoo shrugged. “Like some kind of gang.” 

One person in particular whirled around at hearing the word. “Hey- that wasn’t part of the plan!” Jeonghan whined, “my face will be so… _unpretty_ if we end up in gang activities! Just imagine all the injuries on my face-“ 

“Oh, shut up. You know very well that you could fix that ‘problem’ with your quirk,” Jihoon reached his arm up to gently flick Jeonghan on his forehead, making him giggle. “Anyways, let’s just steal, put aside your gangster stuff.” Chan looked at the other three, silently admiring them. 

“You guys are unbelievable. And amazing,” Chan stated. The other stared at him, blinking. Chan pouted at the loss of response.

“Okay! Let’s check out what this…” Jeonghan exclaimed, before pausing and squinting to try and read the sign a little better, “ **‘Seventeen Guest House’** had to offer. They should have enough for the four of us!”


	2. Encounter

“Wow, what the heck. I still can’t believe you guys are partners.” Mingyu sipped on his tea, watching the two who were close to fighting each other. “How do you even complete cases yourselves? You don’t get along at all!” He called out.

“Wow, what the heck. I still can’t believe you’re still breathing,” Minghao hissed, rolling his eyes at Mingyu. “Go downstairs to the kitchen or something and have your stupid tea there so you can stop interfering with our duel you idiot!” He roared.

“Stop yelling!”

“You were the first one to yell!” He shot back, not missing a beat. Minghao, who previously face Junhui turns to face Mingyu, twirling his nunchucks as an act of intimidation towards Mingyu. The problem was however, he had been using this trick for three years. It was repetitive.

“That’s not going to scare me,” Mingyu snorted, sticking his tongue out to tease the other.

“How about I burn your tongue? It would fall off then I would never have to listen to your bull-“

Junhui slowly backed away, hoping that he could bail from the duel successfully this time. Minghao shouldn’t be able to notice him if he didn’t make a noise— his plan was instantly shattered as he bumped into someone, nearly falling over. “Aigoo, Soonyoung! I was supposed to silently exit the scene before Minghao could fight me!” Junhui scolded in a whisper shout, causing Soonyoung to sigh and shake his head.

“Why are you all bothering this loser? Let him have his stupid night time tea by himself,” Soonyoung called, grabbing everyone’s attention. Mingyu sighed in relief, going over to thank Soonyoung.

“Thank you for saving me from this ugly mullet, my saviour!”

“Ugly mullet—“ Minghao retorted but decides to cut himself off before they end up blowing the building up for the fifth time.

“Uh… I’ll be going. Try not to kill each other,” Soonyoung nodded, turning around and heading for the stairs. Junhui ran over, latching himself onto his arm to avoid the bickering of the other two.

As the two descended down the steps, Soonyoung cleared his throat. “Why do you and Minghao never get along? And when he does try to fight you, why are you even scared? You know damn well you could kill him with one hit from the red demon.”

“Well, yeah, I guess. We usually just bicker in mission, but we manage to make it work.” He clicked his tongue, shaking his head at the mention of his partner. “Besides, if I use the red demon, he’s dead. Like, literally dead.”

“Isn’t that the point? Don’t you kinda want to kill him?” Soonyoung questioned, tilting his head. “I mean, I tried to kill him once.”

“Yeah, you tried to kill me too,” Junhui huffs, making Soonyoung laugh. Soon, Junhui couldn’t help but let out a chuckle. “What about we team kill the next time we have a mission? Let’s kill Minghao by accident. It’s like a small prank—“

“Pranks aren’t funny when someone dies!” Soonyoung retorted, “no joke is funny when there is death involved, okay?”

Junhui rolled his eyes, crossing his arms over his chest. “Then why does Seokmin laugh every time he accidentally kills someone in a mission?!”

“Because he’s a maniac,” Soonyoung decides.

“He’s my role model, then,” Junhui spoke, his eyes lighting up. The other side-glanced the boy, silently judging his practically glittering eyes. He burst out in laughter, doubling over and receiving a whack from the other.

Soonyoung teased Junhui about Seokmin all the way until they reached the kitchen, laughing and joking around.

Luckily, they didn’t realise that the door to the stock room was slightly open, for if they did notice, Chan would’ve probably fainted on the spot. The boy knew that hiding in the storage room wasn’t such a good idea. But he couldn’t really blame his hyungs. After all, two people suddenly entered the area and they didn’t have enough time to think of a place to hide.

Scratch that, they didn’t realise it yet.

Of course, nothing ever goes unnoticed in the Seventeen Armed Forces. They experience sneak attacks, stalkers, and spy cameras all the time, so they always have to be conscious and alert of their surroundings in case some organisation or mafia decides to attack them again. Junhui was the first to notice. “Hey, Soonyoung? Wasn’t the storage room door always closed?”

Soonyoung glanced at the door, narrowing his eyes. “Go check it out, we always have knives here if you need,”

He set his hand on the knob of the drawer. Behind the stock room door, you would witness an endangered Chan, ready to pass out at the mention of knives.

* * *

Junhui didn’t need to be told twice, grabbing the handle and swinging the door open. He was met with four unfamiliar faces.

“Soonyoung, when did we have these kids over?” Junhui questioned, pulling the other to the spot beside him so that he had a good view of what Junhui was met with.

Chan would be lying if he said he didn’t pee himself a little, not sure what he was meant to say or do. Though he was having his own little crisis, he noticed Jeonghan laughing nervously, grabbing the doorknob and pulling the door shut once again.

Soonyoung kicked the door down, “The heck?! Y’all can’t just pretend that nothing happened! What kind of person are you to think that’s going to work?”

“If you pretend that nothing happened, I might be able to offer something for you~” Jeonghan whispered, causing the innocent Soonyoung to frown.

“That depends on how good it is,” Soonyoung raised an eyebrow.

“Hyung! No! We should run!” Chan interrupted, shaking in fear. Wonwoo nods, trying to stay calm as he headed for the door— until he suddenly stopped. Why did he stop? Wonwoo had no idea, so he urged his legs to move again until he realised that they couldn’t. He was literally frozen in place. All of them were frozen in place.

“Okay, I’ll call the others, keep it up,” Junhui spoke as he left the scene, heading upstairs to call the other members… and their leader.

“This your first time encountering a quirk?” Soonyoung turned back to the ones that were being held captive. “Don’t worry, I won’t kill you.”

“It’s not our first time,” Jihoon let a small ‘pfft’ slip past his lips, causing Soonyoung to laugh in disbelief. What a feisty kid. “What is this? Why can’t we move?”

“It’s a quirk—“

“I know what that is, I wanted to know what quirk you have, idiot.” Jihoon cut him off. Chan secretly prayed that Jihoon wouldn’t provoke the person who stood in front of them.

Soonyoung shook his head. “Why not guess?”

Jihoon tsked, “I asked you for a reason. And that’s because I didn’t want to guess.”

Soonyoung chuckled, a smirk tugging at his lips. “You know what? I really want to brainwash you right now.” Jihoon rolled his eyes, a little annoyed at how things weren’t playing his way. He couldn’t blame anyone however, since none of them really made a sound or did anything to attract the attention of the residents.

“If you hadn’t come to the kitchen, we would’ve been full,” Jihoon spoke with a small pout, staring at the ground and causing Jeonghan to laugh.

“There, there, calm your farm!” Jeonghan eyed Jihoon. Yes, he was laughing, but if Jihoon looked closely into his eyes, he could tell that his hyung was afraid. These people had quirks and full control over the orphans; they would probably end up dead if Jihoon made any more petty comments or provoked them in some other way. “We’ll make him behave, can you let us go now?” Jeonghan nodded at Jihoon.

Soonyoung thought about it carefully before reluctantly disabling his quirk to let them move. “I can control minds, which is why you couldn’t move,” Soonyoung announced proudly, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Interesting, you have a quirk.” Wonwoo nodded curtly, before turning to look back at Chan. “Didn’t you say you could help us when we come across another person with a quirk?”

Chan looked up, stumbling over his words. “I-I will, it’s really ama-amazing!” Jihoon raised an eyebrow.

“Then try to help!” Jihoon pleaded, causing the younger to advert his eyes. Wonwoo clicked his tongue.

“What’s up?” Junhui returned to the small cluster, other unidentified people flanking him. “Did they attack or something?”

“Nope,” Soonyoung replied, “but they seem to have a good understanding about quirks.”


	3. Decision

“They have an understanding on quirks, you say?” A person with plump lips spoke, eyeing the four strangers who stood in the kitchen. “Why? Are you from Pledis mafia? Or an organisation with people who have quirks?”

“What? No, we’re orphans, pretty boy. We come from the orphanage. No, please stop circling around us and just let us go!” Jihoon hissed, making his companions sigh.

The other 6 members of the facility decided to have a mini-meeting in front of the four orphans. It may have not been a good idea, but they needed to come to an agreement, fast. The four orphans could only watch helplessly as the others huddled around and talked to one another. They were all under Soonyoung’s control, so the orphans would only share knowing looks towards each other.

“He called me pretty boy!” The cherry plum lipped boy gushed.

“Seungcheol, you’re supposed to be the leader. Why are you like this?” Mingyu commented, fishing out a notebook and pen from his pocket.

“Do you want me to end it now?”

“Okay but, tell me why Mingyu’s acting like a leader.”

“Because he’s so salty he wasn't appointed as the leader, he’s taking every opportunity to act like one.” Jun stuck his tongue out.

“Uh, guys? Can you please hurry up?” Seokmin asks, wanting to scratch his cap. Of course, however, he couldn’t, his head was still covered in suds of shampoo. He wasn’t wearing anything under his bathrobe, his body dripping wet. “I was kinda in the middle of something important, you know? You could’ve called Shua hyung or Seungkwan.”

“It was your choice to come out of the freaking shower,” Minghao rolled his eyes. “Bet you were playing with your rubber duckies.”

“Oh, do you want your flat ass sliced? I can summon my special slaughter katana just for you—“

“Okay, we can’t let them go,” Soonyoung cut the other off, making him frown. Soonyoung doesn’t spare him a glance. “If we let them go, they’ll just rob others and make a fuss.”

Junhui, for once, decides to contribute his ideas to the team. Soonyoung’s jaw almost unhinged from its place when the usually quiet Junhui suddenly spoke up. “They know about quirks. They could be a potential hazard.”

“Do they have quirks?” Seokmin made a sour face. “I doubt it though, they look too trashy.”

“Yeah, you look like an idiot, and I doubt your ability is useful,” Minghao retorts. Mingyu sighed, watching Minghao start yet another argument with a new member. Was this his hobby or something?

“You think they have quirks?” Seungcheol questioned. “I don’t know, if they don’t have quirks, then we should call the orphanage. And if they do, well… we can’t hold them captive here, or let them go. They might join a quirk mafia or some other sort of evil organisation.”

“He’s right,” Mingyu seconds the statement. He had the same thought as Seungcheol did— but was unable to think of a solution. “I don’t know what to do with them.”

“Hell, if they have quirks, don’t let them join here,” Soonyoung eyes the smallest orphan among the four, “there’s a sassy one and I don’t want to deal with him. He’s just like Minghao.”

“Nobody can reach my level, bish!” Minghao closed his arms and held his chin up high. “I’m offended. Might pick on you later.”

“Yeah, but recently your level has been storing so low that you agreed to eat dog food in exchange for my Balenciaga kicks,” Junhui shot, hitting the other right where it hits, “and oh! You said it kinda tasted good!” Mingyu burst out into a laughing fit from the side.

“Oh, frick you. You think my pay is enough to buy Balenciagas?” Minghao gasped. “And you said you’d keep that a secret!”

“Of course you do! You’re just spending too much of your money on your weird manga collection!” Minghao raised a hand to his chest as an offended gesture.

“The mangas are not weird!” He almost shouted, “besides, I can afford the shoes if I were in Pledis Mafia. The pay is 5x better. It’s not me, it’s Seventeen that’s causing the problem.”

“Yeah, the pay here is getting low because you’re scaring away our clients,” Junhui quipped, causing Minghao to scoff.

“Okay, you guys done?” Seokmin asked. “So, what do we do?”

* * *

“Maybe we should speak to them.” Mingyu’s statement earns a few nods and sounds of agreement, the six members turning around. Soonyoung momentarily disables his quirk on the four orphans, when suddenly—

Chan runs over to Seungcheol, his arms open. He embraces the boy, although he had time to react since the distance that Chan had travelled was pretty far. He had no idea if Chan had an quirk yet, so just for safety, he decides to use his own. If Chan really had something up his sleeve, it wouldn’t have worked for Chan would just go straight through Seungcheol.

But somehow, Chan managed to get hold of Seungcheol. Jeonghan smirked, seeing that perhaps Chan was telling the truth all along. The plump lipped boy looked surprised, and it only told Jeonghan one thing; Chan’s ability was working.

The young boy was now hugging the taller, face buried in his chest. What was he up to, why was he suddenly hugging a supposed enemy? And why wasn’t Chan going through Seungcheol’s body?

“Seungcheol, why aren’t you using your quirk? That going through objects crap?! I thought it worked on humans!” “I am using my quirk, you idiot!” Seungcheol stared at the boy who hugged him tightly. “What the heck is this!?”

“Aw, did he just want a hug— oh wait. If you’re using your quirk, then…” Soonyoung trails off, looking down at the ground, lost in thought. Instead of thinking, the other simultaneously looked towards the orphans. It was suspicious as heck. Their overall knowledge about quirks, this strange phenomenon where Seungcheol’s quirk wasn’t working, and Chan just casually hugging their leader.

Why wasn’t Seungcheol’s ability working?

“You’ve been tricked!” Jeonghan cackled as Jihoon used his quirk to raise a kitchen knife nearby. He sends it flying in a quick pace towards Seungcheol with a small flick of the wrist, the boy noticing it at the last second and only just barely dodging. In result, he received a slit on his throat, only it wasn’t as deep as Jihoon intended it to be. He cursed under his breath while Seungcheol wiped away the blood that dripped from the fresh wound.

“So you guys do have quirks after all, huh?” Minghao questioned, pulling out his nunchucks from his back pocket. Junhui was whispering under his breath, calling the Red Demon so she would be ready when he needed her. Seokmin already had a katana on hand, while Seungcheol was flabbergasted.

“Wait, don’t attack. Soonyoung, control them, do not let them move.” He looked down to see Chan relying on Seungcheol, for his legs had given out and he couldn’t handle his own weight, his eyes displaying only his sclera.

“He used his ability for the first time in a while. He’s lost all his energy,” Seungcheol commented, sweeping the orphan’s feet off the floor, causing Seokmin to gush at the leader’s action.

“Criminal x organisation president trope? Oh crap, I love it.” Seokmin drew his katana. Seungcheol glared at Seokmin, taking a warning step forward. “Yah, calm down, leader-nim.”

“So, what is his quirk?”

“Negating quirks,” the orphan with cat eyes answered. Wonwoo. “We only found out about it now, to be honest.”

“Oh, so you’re not mute?” Mingyu rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. “Why are you guys here? Are you sure you’re from the orphanage? How do you guys have quirks, and who are your parents? Why did you guys attack us?”

Wonwoo took a deep breath before speaking after his barrage of questions. “We are here to steal some supplies since we don’t have any money. About our quirks, we found out about them in our early teenage years. We’re orphans, we also constantly ask ourselves who our parents are, or were. We only attacked you so we could get away from here,” Wonwoo answered suit, receiving a nod from the other. “And I just spoke, so I’m clearly not mute.”

“What should we do with them?” Seokmin questioned, deciding to discard his katana for now. “We can’t hold them captive, let them go just for evil organisations to prey on, or accept them here as orphans,” Seokmin listed each point off his fingers.

“I think I just fell in love,” Seungcheol blinked, earning many funny looks from the members. Up to this day, they have no idea why Seungcheol was the leader of this group. “How about we keep them as employees?”

“What?! I thought you said you didn’t want any more members?!” Mingyu objects, swiftly turning to face Seungcheol. In return, he waved his hand dismissively, his gaze fixed on the orphans. “Yah! Don’t ignore me, gums!”

“Hello, we are Seventeen Armed Forces, we’re a supernatural crime division created to fight supernatural crimes. All of use are members with quirks. Would you guys like to take a chance and earn a place in the force?” Seungcheol states, holding his hand out. “We’re trying to give you a chance, you know."


	4. Convinced

“We don’t like that idea,” Jeonghan smiled at the strangers. “We’re not going to earn anything from this. We’re not hero wannabes, so just give us Chan back and we’ll get out of here.”

“Nah. I don’t want Chan,” Jihoon puckered his lips, making a small ‘hiss’ sound. It was rather cute.

“Give him a chance, Jihoon. You were just as cu—”

“No, we can’t let you go. You might succumb to the dark side.” Junhui replied, “and you’re going to earn something if you join our force!”

Jihoon scoffed, turning all the attention towards him. “What are we going to earn here, huh? Family? Do you know what comes after that? Pain. We don’t want that, we want to survive. We don’t need a family to survive, so just let us go. We won’t succumb to the ‘dark side’ or whatever else you said earlier.”

Seokmin laughed, though he was rather interested in this kid. “Ew. We’re not a freaking family. I’d rather drive off a cliff with my precious jeep than call them family,” Seokmin pointed to the other five members.

Sure, Jihoon was right about the whole family and pain thing, but no such thing existed here.

“Listen, you get some good crap here,” Minghao was flicking through his social media on his phone. “Might not be as good as mafia benefits, but, anyways. You get free food, clothes, a room to sleep in, training for your abilities, kicking ass and money.” The boy shoved his phone into his pocket, going back to playing with his nunchucks once again. Jeonghan visibly smirked. 

“Yeah, if you really want better benefits, you can go to Pledis Mafia. They have weed,” Junhui did a chef’s kiss. Soonyoung made fake gagging noises, while Junhui and Minghao high fived. This was one of the rare moments where Minghao actually agreed with his partner, so Soonyoung decided not to interrupt.

“Money, interesting.” Wonwoo nods, giving it a good thought. “How much will it be? Just for reference.”

Seokmin cackled, “You like money, don’t you?” He took out his wallet and fished out a single card that made the orphans gawk in awe. “That’s right. This card… is black, of course. I have a MasterCard black card.” Seokmin shrugged, brushing it off as if it was loose change. As the orphans, eyed the card, Wonwoo was the first to give in.

“Okay,” he spoke, making the other two snap their heads in his direction. If anyone among them hated acquainting themselves with strangers, it would be Wonwoo. So it was rather surprising that he was the one who agreed to it first.

“Wonwoo?!” Jihoon asked in disbelief, “what are you doing?!”

Wonwoo ignored the two. “I’ll join. I’m eighteen, I can join, right? There's no age restriction?” Wonwoo asked, causing Soonyoung to disable his quirk on Wonwoo. Seungcheol laughs and nods at the cat-eyed boy, who raised an eyebrow. “Oh, really? That’s good. What else do I do?”

“We’ll wait for your company’s decision,” Seungcheol adverted his gaze to the boy who was staring at the ground and the chatty grey-haired boy. “So?”

“I said, I don’t—“

“I’ll join! Them as well!” Jeonghan’s gaze flickered between Jihoon, Seungcheol and Chan. Seungcheol nods. “I’m a week over nineteen, and this little guy here is— believe me, he’s of legal age, eighteen, I mean. And the kid you’re carrying, I believe he’s eighteen as well.”

“What do you mean ‘believe me, he’s of legal age?!’ I look mature enough thank you very much!”

“Aigoo, I can see wrinkles. Don’t be so grumpy all the time or you’ll actually start getting signs of aging!” The remark by Jeonghan makes everyone laugh.

Jihoon frowned. “I don’t want to be a part of this, let me go.”

“Jihoon, the orphanage can find you outside,” Wonwoo spoke up, his sharp eyes set on the small boy. “For now, let’s just accept their offer. We can talk later.”

Guess he had no choice then. He would be lying if he said he wasn’t persuaded in the least by the time that Seokmin had pulled out his black card and when he had noticed that Minghao was indeed wearing Balenciagas. Despite that, he still idea, even if there were money and essentials for his survival.

But the reason that he agreed was that he wouldn’t be able to live alone without Wonwoo or Jeonghan. They’ve been inseparable since their cringey emo stages.

“I don’t understand. You said you don’t want any more members!” Mingyu interrupts, to which Seungcheol only shrugged. “I can’t believe you’re the leader!”

“I feel good about this,” Seungcheol nodded at the orphans. “Like they could be the missing piece to fill the empty spot in Seventeen. Like they would adjust the force closer to perfection.”

“Yeah, I spot a cute one,” Soonyoung glanced in the direction of Jihoon, who wrinkled his nose up. He turned back to the others, “Should we start the official process?”

* * *

“What the heck did you do to them!?”

“I locked them in Hansol’s room.”

“What can Hansol do about them?! He’s always asleep anyways! If they go on a rampage, it probably won’t even wake him up!” Minghao didn’t receive a reply from Mingyu. The boy was 101% sure that the other had heard him but just ignored it because he realised what they had done.

“So, apparently they agreed,” A raven haired member spun around in his swivel chair, imagining how chaotic or calm the new members may be. “Do all of them have quirks?”

“I think the small one has telekinesis. He wasn’t nice, Shua, that one bullied me!” Soonyoung fake cried. The raven hair named Joshua simply stared at the overdramatic boy.

“Are you always this annoying or is today just a special day?” Seungkwan scowled. “Oh, it is a special day—”

“Seungkwan, just let him be.” Joshua hummed, Seungkwan immediately following what the other said. Joshua was the only one they all listened to, without anything in return. Maybe his soft personality contributed to part of it. “So? Seungcheol? Final proposal?”

To Joshua, it might be that, but it was really because they just don’t know how many tricks he could pull off on his members. If they pissed him off, they’ll probably never be able to escape Joshua’s revenge, his quirk was too hard to figure out.

“I think we can train them quite well, they’re really needed here—“

“Why do we need him, exactly?”

“Guys, just let Seungcheol finish,” Seokmin spoke, tying his robe tighter. “I still have to wash off the shampoo so you better make it snappy.”

“BECAUSE,” Seungcheol cut him off, “we can finally beat our sworn enemy. Our arch-nemesis, I guess you could say. His quirk is too powerful, and hard to fight against— but you know, with the new members, we can finally win against him, finally, get rid of their ugly crimes. We will win, Seventeen."


	5. Deduction

“Why the frick did you two choose to join this good-for-nothing group?!” Jihoon ranted. Jeonghan chuckled and pats Jihoon’s head, trying to calm him down. “I’m not a dog, Jeonghan!” 

“ That’s hyung for you, alright?” Jeonghan cooed, still patting his head. “Don’t be too noisy, the guy on the bed might wake up.” Jeonghan pointed to the bed, where a head was poking out of the covers. He had a pretty face, but that’s for another time. 

“Jihoon, you don’t understand why we can’t risk ourselves running around outside,” Wonwoo’s gaze was on Chan, whose head was resting on his lap.”The orphanage is not a real orphanage, Jihoon. The so-called nuns went nuns. The staff aren’t social workers. The guards are… well, still guards, but all of the orphan thing is just a front.” 

“F-front?” Chan lifted his head, “What do you mean, hyung?” 

“Wow, you figured it out fast!” Jeonghan slowly clapped. “Are you a detective or something?” 

“What do you two know?” Jihoon’s posture straightened, alert. What did they know that he didn't? Jihoon always knew all the sneaky stuff that Wonwoo or Jeonghan knew, but why didn't he know any of this?

“When you turn nineteen, they turn you into a monster, into someone you’re not. A sadist, if you want to call it that. They teach you tricks on how to fight empty-handed, with a knife, with a gun, or even experiment with grenades. Also, how to kill innocent people mercilessly, if they get in your way. If you finish the training, they take you somewhere else. I went through one week of training.” Jeonghan’s smile turned into a smirk, his aura giving off a dangerous vibe— even more so when he talked about murder. “They turn you into weapons. Who we’ll work for? I have no idea.” 

“We were going to work for a mafia when the training ends.” Chan gasped at the new information, slowly rising from his lap. “You see, they talk about smuggling weapons, like, ‘when will the pieces be delivered? Boss is getting impatient.’ or, ‘the latest goal is bananas. We got more in the bankbook for that.’ Pieces can mean guns, a goal can mean missions, and ‘bananas’ is a slang term for success. Success for whom? Criminal organisations, most likely. Bankbook? Their paycheck, of course.” 

Jeonghan smirked, before nodding, impressed at Wonwoo’s observation skills. “Jeon Wonwoo, you’re too good. You figured it out before I did, and you weren’t even revealed to the training grounds yet!”

“All it took was an observation, Jeonghan,” Wonwoo turned to look at Jihoon, who didn’t seem to be in the least surprised, as if he had expected the orphanage to actually be a secret mafia all along. “Jihoon, if they find us lurking in abandoned alleyways or mingling with some lowly gang, we’ll get dragged back into that hellhole.” 

“But, what if they aren’t a mafia?” 

“Trust me, they are,” Wonwoo reassured. Chan was amazed at the boy’s self-confidence; presenting his conclusions as to the truth even when he didn’t have any material proof. “You see the little tattoos on their wrists, the Chinese characters? That tattoo is probably their trademark. To distinguish themselves to each other, and maybe even their enemies.” 

“So… did they know that we had quirks?” Chan asked, raising a hand as if he was in school. Jeonghan chuckled, scooting over and ruffling his hair. 

“I don’t believe so. They weren’t prepared for an assault involving quirks when we attacked, so they most likely don’t know about them,” He spoke, the room falling back into silence. 

Until an unfamiliar voice spoke.

* * *

“My members took in potential Fukuro mafia members?” Shuffling sounds of sheets follow before the head poking out reveals its body. “Interesting.” 

“Great, another annoying member we have to deal with,” Jihoon huffed, looking towards the direction of the unknown person. “You know about that orphanage?” 

The boy smirks and stands up from his bed, ruffling his hair and approaching the four boys who sat on the carpeted floor. “You guess are in my bedroom, you know.” 

“Uh, yeah, we figured,” Jeonghan rolled his eyes, standing up and facing the unknown boy. He smiled when he realises that he was slightly taller than the other. He steps closer, but the unknown boy doesn’t back up. _‘He has guts, doesn’t he?’_ Jeonghan thought to himself. 

“I’ve never been looked down upon like this,” Chan remarked, awkwardly standing up. Wonwoo got up as well, shortly followed by Jihoon. 

“Let’s not start a fight!” The tension drops as Jeonghan exclaims and takes a step backwards, “you heard our conversation, right?”

“Yeah, he obviously. Did. And we shouldn’t start any fights because we’re trying to join this team for protection, starting a fight would only risk our chances of getting in,” Wonwoo added. The boy laughed, staring at the cat-eyed boy. 

“Very blunt and observant. You found out about Fukuro mafia by yourself, you’re a perfect fit.” The unknown boy finally introduced himself, “I’m Hansol, Seventeen Armed Forced member. If you start a fight with me, you lose. Anything as simple as brushing shoulders with me can kill you. I’m venomous,” Hansol raised his hand, reaching for Jihoon playfully, who retracted his arms to his chest. 

“You guys should join me. We’re going to crash the meeting. Which, they didn't bother telling me about again!” 

Jihoon smiled for the first time since they had arrived here. “Hell yeah. I’ll find out what they talk about behind our backs,” Jeonghan laughed at Jihoon’s statement, before commenting and agreeing to the boy. 

The five boys entered the elevator, which Chan immediately asks about. “Hey, why do you guys have an elevator with 12 level buttons?! Don’t you only have too floors?” 

“That’s what you see,” Hansol remarked, only leaving Chan more confused. Wonwoo continued from where Hansol left off, deciding to explain it for the curious boy. 

“The sign says ‘Seventeen Guest House’. They’re trying not to give away their supernatural division and the whole quirks thing to innocent people out there, so they use this guest house as a front. A typical guest house— I think, I’ve only seen them in tv and books— only has two to three floors. If it is seen that this guest house has 12 floors, the innocent people will naturally become suspicious. So, they hide the other floors. They’re probably using an illusion or someone on the team can conceal the other floors to the naked eye,” Wonwoo concluded, very sure of his statements. 

Chan’s mouth fell open, nodding while making a small ‘oh’ sound. Now he understood. 

“He’s right,” Hansol nodded before the elevator bell dinged and the doors opened. He walked out, a smile painted on his face.

_This guy’s smart,_ Hansol had thought to himself.  _What is his ability? Natural deduction?_ Hansol hadn’t really encountered somebody with such a great mind before. His deductions could be of use for their forces, and Minghao could really use this guy’s bluntness. 

He wants them on the team.


	6. Introduction

“Hey, this kind of feels like an audition!” Seokmin cheered, shifting in his chair. “Okay, lets start from you. You look cute.” Seokmin pointed to Chan, whose smile immediately dropped and was replaced by a more nervous one. 

All thirteen, members and non-members were allocated in the meeting room. The members sat in their respective chairs, while the orphans stood to one side. Chan was now standing in front of the members, a gigantic screen behind him. If you looked closely enough, you could see the glistening of sweat on his forehead. Jeonghan waved at Chan and cheered for him quietly. 

“I-I’m Lee Chan! I’m eighteen, and my quirk is negating other quirks.” Chan stumbled over his words, flushed as the others just observed him, and one was writing down what he said, “Um… do— do you hate me?” 

“Ah, I hate your fashion sense, if I must say,” Minghao made a disgusted face at Chan’s poopy-yellow shirt with bubbly letters across the front saying ‘this boy wants to party’. 

“Speak normally Minghao, you’re not in the 1800s you idiot!” Junhui sneered, earning laughs from around the table. Minghao hissed at Junhui, who held his hands up in defeat for he didn't particularly want to fight in front of the new kid who already looked scared enough on his own. 

“S-sorry,” Chan quickly bowed to Minghao. 

“Don’t do that! He doesn’t deserve your respect! He ate dog food for my shoes!” Junhui spoke up again, to which Chan finally laughed at. He was starting to loosen up because of the ‘homey’ vibe thee strangers gave off. Minghao snapped, jumped up from his seat and fishing out his nunchucks— which were burning. 

“Why the hell is it on fire!?” Jihoon panicked, just like everyone else while Minghao ran towards Junhui. The boy sighed, calling the red demon. “AND WHY THE HELL IS THERE A GIGANTIC RED GLOWING DEMONESS?! I’M OUT OF HERE!” 

“Oh don’t worry. It's a daily thing they do, they aren’t actually going to continue it.” Soonyoung spun around, his swivel chair creaking slightly. He met the eyes of Jihoon, who immediately frowned at the sight of his face. “Oh hey, shrimpy!”

“I’m not a freaking shrimp! I’m 164cm!” 

“Not that,” Soonyoung laughed, right after the red demoness was gone and Minghao was back in his seat. “Because you only want the body of a shrimp, but not its head. For your case, I like your toned body but not your fa— IT’S NOT TIME TO SHOWCASE YOUR QUIRK YET!” Soonyoung screamed, leaning back to avoid the sharp point of the fountain pen hovering dangerously close to his neck. Jihoon disabled his quirk on the pen, laughing before he turned to Chan again. 

“Okay, Chan, show us your quirk.” Joshua spun his pen before placing it down. Chan smiled, walking towards Joshua. When Joshua realised that Chan was standing in front of him, he smiled back warmly. “Oh? What is it?” 

“You’re using your ability, I can feel it,” Chan spoke, to which Joshua’s eyes widened. 

“W-what? I don’t have control over the permanent illusions I set anymore— what do you mean?” 

“Hold up, he can also feel if an ability is being used?” Mingyu straightened up, gasping at the new information. “That’s so cool man! We totally need you on the team!” 

There goes Mingyu; the man who previously declined to have more members on the team, being enthralled by Chan’s ability. 

“So, care to show your ability?” Seungkwan turned his attention back to Chan. 

_Okay, try not to faint._ Chan took a deep breath, nodding. He stepped forward, placing his hand on Joshua’s arm and smiling when he witnessed something about the older _change_ — before his legs collapsed beneath him. Seungkwan sighed, resting his chin on his hand as he watched the others huddle around the newbie. “He’s low on stamina. Probably hasn’t used his ability in a long time.”

“Oh my goodness!” Soonyoung suddenly gasped, turning to Joshua. “You’ve been concealing… you’ve been concealing your hair! Its like cotton candy!” The boy points to Joshua’s fluffy head of pink cotton candy hair, to which he responded by shyly running his fingers through the strands. 

“Uh… you know, when I last dyed my hair green, you guys said you wanted to bleach your eyes out when you saw it, but it looked okay to me. So I tried dyeing it again, but pink this time, and I thought it didn’t look great so…” 

“Yeah, that was one time because you wanted to look like Deku,” Junhui commented. “At least try to think about whether the colour would fit you or not, not just think about anime characters. You don’t really radiate Deku energy.” 

“Dude, it’s so freaking cool,” Jeonghan subconsciously walked up to Joshua. The others tightened up, ready for some sort of attack, but the boy only stood in front of Joshua, staring at the pink cotton candy hair. 

“Did you dye it yourself?” Minghao questioned. 

“Yeah, I didn’t have time to go to a hairdresser,” Joshua replied, turning to look at Jeonghan. He was particularly intimidated by the ‘trickster’ aura that Jeonghan gave off. Maybe because Joshua was a bit of a trickster himself. Jeonghan nodded with a small smile, before walking back to where he previously stood.

The others were weirded out by his antics. 

“Uh, alright, next.” Seungcheol walked back to his chair, slumping down in it. “Introduce yourself please.” 

“Jeon Wonwoo, eighteen. Gravity manipulation,” Wonwoo crossed his arms, walking to the center. “Would you like me to demonstrate?” 

The nine members nodded in unison. Wonwoo shrugged, walking to the side of the room.

He surprises the members as he steps on to the wall, then onto the ceiling— he was now upside down, still and firm like a bat on a cave’s ceiling. Wonwoo jumped down, landing on his feet before he makes a few small motions with his hands, causing a small black hole to appear right above his palm. 

“Not only that walking on the ceiling thing, but I can gather forces of gravity into one place, creating a black hole. It can suck in things ranging from small trinkets to people or even further, depending on how strong the gravitational force is. My strength does get affected, however, sometimes my hands get too heaving from the gravity,” the boy explains as the black hole slowly vanishes. Joshua took down all the notes attentively. 

“So if I push you off a cliff, you won’t die?” 

“Nope.”

“Interesting,” Seokmin hums, ignoring the other member’s sighs. Seokmin had rather inventive ways of kicking butts— he sometimes even sings about his ways to murder. This inquiry of ‘pushing Wonwoo off a cliff’ was only giving him more ideas. 

What a weirdo. 

“Okay! Next, Lee Jihoon,” Jeonghan pushed the smaller to the front, earning a glare from the other before Jeonghan went back to his spot. 

Soonyoung smirks, speaking up, “Let’s see what the shrimpy has up his sleeve~”


	7. Irrelevant!?

“Lee Jihoon, 18. Telekinesis,” The boy muttered, wasting no time to demonstrate his ability. A knife floated out from him pocket, hovering dangerously near Soonyoung. 

“Do you want to murder me!?” The boy quickly pushed the knife away. “Hey, you stole our kitchen knife! Shrimpy, you suck!” 

“Aw, baby boy’s about to cry?” Jihoon frowned, mocking the other. “Maybe ‘shrimpy’ can help take the knife away from your throat!” 

Mingyu burst out in laughter, “Soonyoung’s been held at gunpoint, threatened multiple times by users of quirks— but he has never been _this_ close to crying. Wow. The impact.” 

“Ooh, _baby boy._ I can smell the tension,” Junhui teased, before the hovering knife in front of Soonyoung travels to Junhui, he raised a questioning eyebrow at the other. Jihoon sighs, disabling his quirk on the knife and grabbing it. “Okay, got anything else to show us?” 

“Uh, I’m fast?” Jihoon hummed. The members were interested by this, leaning forward. When he got the reaction he wanted, Jihoon smirked, spinning around. Jihoon said he was fast, but nobody expected it to be _this_ fast, it all happened in the blink of an eye.

Soonyoung instinctively touched his arm, which was now bleeding. He blinked, trying to process what the heck had just happened. When he realised what had happened, he tried to recover from his flustered state with a smirk, turning in his chair to look at Jihoon. “Nice one shrimpy. But next time, try to aim for the members who don’t have ‘Soonyoung’ in their name.” 

Meanwhile, Mingyu was absolutely flabbergasted. “Wait, what the heck!? Why is Jihoon over there!?” Mingyu pointed to Jihoon, who now stood at the other side of the room, across from where he previously stood. “And why is Soonyoung bleeding?” 

Wonwoo stepped forward, explaining, “Jihoon can manipulate his own body as well; like increase his speed or fly. Now, Jihoon flew from one end of the room to the other at the speed of light, holding his knife. He purposely aimed for Soonyoung. If he was tasked to assassinate 9 members in a second, he could do it unnoticed and easily because of his speed and quirk.” 

“Nine members?” Minghao chuckled. “What a coincidence.” 

Wonwoo shrugged, “It was just an example.” Mingyu nodded at Wonwoo’s explanation, registering his words while Jihoon walked back to his spot, not even breaking a sweat.

“Next!” Seungcheol called, slamming his hand on the table, causing Jihoon to grunt under his breath at the sound. 

Jeonghan stepped up to the front wearing his bright smile. “Hello! I’m Yoon Jeonghan, I’m nineteen, my quirk is…” the boy paused as if he was deep in thought. “I don’t know what my quirk’s called, would you rather see it for yourself?” 

“Kay,” Minghao responded simply, slumping down in his chair, “No offence or anything, but you look kinda irrelevant,” the boy commented. 

Jeonghan simply laughed it off, but he was rather irritated. _Irrelevant? Me?!_

“Jihoonie?” Jeonghan called out, honey lacing his tone. Jihoon scoffed, before responding to the other’s call. 

A knife flew to Jeonghan’s hand, who plays around with it for a little while, getting used to its structure. The boy grins, looking up at the members of Seventeen. “So, does anyone want to volunteer?” 

“Hyung, I thinker’s better if you do it yourself,” Chan spoke nervously, who was pulled up to the front no later than the words had left his lips. Jeonghan faced his audience, gripping the younger boy by his shoulders.

“So you can’t say that I’m attacking you, I’m going to use Chan!” Jeonghan thrusts the knife into a terrified Chan’s chest, before pulling it out. Some of the members gasped audibly, shocked at the sudden attack. Without a break in between, Jeonghan thrusted the knife into his torso this time, twisting it. 

“What the heck is this!?” Seokmin interrupted, “as much as I’d like to see your quirk and its flashy elements, we still have to clean up after you guys! That’s a lot of blood to clean—“ 

“Oh, gee. Wow, you have the best quirk ever!” Jihoon mocked in a sarcastic tone, rolling his eyes, “do it now or Chan might actually die!” 

“Poor kid,” Minghao muttered, watching Chan’s blood squirt everywhere. 

“Okay, don’t use your ability on me, or you’ll die!” Jeonghan traces the stab on the other’s chest— before the wound stopped bleeding, closing up with a warm glow. Chan sighed in relief, touching where the scar would’ve been as he headed back to the chair he previously sat on. “And now for mine,” Jeonghan pulled the knife out of himself, watching as the wound closed up. 

“Oh? That’s called a healing quirk, is it not?” Joshua looked up from his notes.

“There’s a catch, cotton candy,” Jeonghan’s newfound nickname for him made Joshua’s eye twitch. _Cotton candy? What am I, your sugar baby?_ Luckily, nobody was really looking in his direction, so nobody saw the attitude he had suddenly gotten. “I can only heal fatal wounds. Even if you have a serious injury, I can’t do anything about it. I have to make it worse before I can properly heal it.” 

“Won’t that make you feel guilty?” Mingyu inquired from his end of the table, tapping his pen against his temple thoughtfully. “I mean, I would feel bad if I had to put someone on the brink of death just to heal them.” 

Jeonghan tilted his head, an eerie smile plastered on his features. “Oh, you. I went through trainings run by sadists. I’ve learnt enough from them.” 

Jihoon hurriedly grabs the knife off Jeonghan again, to which the other whined. “I can kill somebody barehanded anyways,” Jeonghan made a face at the other. _Party pooper._

While the others discussed in the background, Seungkwan sighed, shaking his head. _We’re getting another Seokmin, another Minghao, an edgy kid and another kid who’s rather weak— what will become of Seventeen?_

“I think they’re from the whole scam that Fukuro Mafia pulled of to gain more recruits and pawns,” Hansol finally speaks up. “That guy named Wonwoo confirmed that the orphanage was actually just a front for a mafia; I just correlated it to a mafia that we all know _very well._ ” 

The members visibly stiffened up, the atmosphere in the room growing uncomfortable.  “I’ve got information, then,” Jeonghan spoke up, leaning over. 

“So do we, you idiot,” Minghao shot back, “I’m from Pledis Mafia. Fukuro is merely one of the branches of my mafia— of _our_ mafia,” Minghao took his time to point to the other previous members; Junhui, Hansol and Seungkwan. 

“Why are you here then?” Jihoon asked in a genuine tone this time. 

“Ah, that’s because…” Minghao trailed off, pausing carefully, “we’ve been kicked out. We used to be the secret weapons of Pledis Mafia, but we were recalled because of some stupid false alarm— so there’s no use calling us that anymore. In the end, we decided to join this team instead.” 

“Woah… interesting,” Jeonghan nodded, intrigued by their story. “But, when will you guys introduce yourselves to us?”


	8. Worth

“Choi Seungcheol, Hong Jisoo, Wen Junhui, Kwon Soonyoung, Xu Minghao, Kim MIngyu, Lee Seokmin, Boo Seungkwan, Chwe Hansol,” Seungcheol pointed to each of the members, who briefly raised their hand as their name was called, “you’ll find out their quirks soon enough.” 

“That’s unfair!” Jihoon whined, “You get to know our quirks and we don’t?” 

“Okay, end of meeting! Seungkwan, show them their rooms, Mingyu, you can whip up some dinner,” the leader stood up, stretching out his back, “I’ll have their tasks ready for tomorrow, goodnight!” 

Seungkwan waved the four over, leading them back into the elevator. He pressed the number ‘7’ button before speaking. “You guys better get ready for tomorrow. You’ll be assigned missions.” 

Wonwoo scrunched his nose up at the new information, “That early?” 

“Yes. It also serves as training,” Seungkwan sighed, tapping his foot impatiently as they advanced up the floors. “You’ll either get a partner or in larger groups. Have you got anyone in mind, though?” 

“Oh, definitely the strawberry boy,” Jeonghan sighed dreamily, receiving a reaction from Seungkwan, “he’s my type. Will he like me though?”

Seungkwan laughed, “I know, I know! He’s so cute!” Seungkwan shows Jeonghan his jazz hands before they both laugh. It seems like they found something they could both agree on. 

“I think I might like it here after all,” Jeonghan laughed. 

“Yeah, well, mark your mans now,” Seungkwan and him continue chatting until they finally reach their rooms.

* * *

The loud speakers playing some anime opening from the hallway awoke Chan from his slumber. Aw, man! Chan wanted to sleep a little longer in his new room, new bed, new pillows! 

"I need to get up, I guess. This is the first day of my new life!" Chan commented in his usual cheery voice to nobody in particular, fixing the messy covers before slipping into his fuzzy slippers. He walked outside and was immediately met with a grumpy Jihoon.

"What the heck?! Why do they think it's a good idea to play metal this early in the morning?" Jihoon ranted as he made his way to the elevator. The younger boy ran after him, excited for the day ahead of them. 

"I'm excited hyung!"

"I'm not," Jihoon spoke flatly, heading out through the elevator doors and directly to the dining room.

"Aw, Jihoon hyung! At least it's nicer living here now! The dinner wasn't bland, the mattress was soft, and there was air conditioning!"

"I don't have the energy to pretend to like you today."

"You two are late!" Jeonghan butted in. Only then did Chan realise that they had already reached the table. "We were waiting for you! They won't spill today's agenda without you two!"

Without any further ado, Seungcheol cleared his throat, speaking to the group. "Jeonghan and Joshua, you get the Karasu Mafia case. DK, Vernon, Black Swan, you three make reports on the serial murder case. Jun and The8, Pledis Mafia's weapon smuggling are at the port today, you know the drill. Jihoon and Hoshi, you need to get Joshua's _Sand of Time_ back. Chan, you come with me. Wonwoo and 97, you're up for the bombing today." Seungcheol scattered the folders he had been holding onto the tables, the said members immediately picking them up. 

"Aw, S.Coups! I wanted to have some fun today," Seokmin sighed, throwing his spoon back into his bowl of cereal. Some of the milk splattered on Minghao, who started yet another argument with Seokmin about how he soiled Minghao's silky Chanel pyjamas so early in the morning.

"Aw, I'm heading to the fourth floor," Hansol stated, standing up and grabbing his iced coffee with him.

"You're just going to play games on the computers!" Soonyoung yelled, leaning back, "don't try to use my computer or my Steam Wallet! And oh god, who drinks iced coffee so early in the morning?!" 

Wonwoo noticed how Seungcheol addressed each of the members, _they had codenames_. Jeonghan just sat there with a smile, satisfied that he was paired up with Jisoo. Jihoon on the other hand definitely had some issues he wanted to speak about, but he didn't end up protesting after all. It would be embarrassing, everyone was too serious. 

"Eat this granola bar, you're going to need it." Chan was thrown the said food item before his wrist was grabbed by none other than Seungcheol. Junhui clicked his tongue seeing the boy so excited. He had no idea what Seungcheol had in store for him.

"What are we doing today, hyung?"

"When we're working, it's S.Coups," Seungcheol chuckled, "we have codenames that we use at work."

"Oh! Do I get a codename?" 

Chan was weirdly innocent and smiley for an eighteen year old who was involved with Fukuro. At least, that was what Hansol had told them the other day. "Yes, you will. Now, before you get one, you must remember these things," Seungcheol's smile slowly drops into a sly smirk.

Chan could only tilt his head, curious. "What is it?"

"That bracelet prevents you from using your ability, and it can only be unlocked with a key I have. I disable my ability when I attack, and," Seungcheol stopped in front of a door, holding it open for Chan. Once they were both in the room closed off with white walls and empty, vast space, Seungcheol continued. "Don't give up."

Chan was utterly confused. When did the thick, steel bracelet with a small red blinking light make its way onto his wrist? Why was Seungcheol suddenly giving him tips like those? And why were they in this white room? Chan thought that-

"Whoopsies! That was a little harsh, wasn't it?" Chan found himself on the ground of the opposite side of the room, blood dribbling from his mouth. In the split second when his mind wandered off, Seungcheol had perfectly socked him in the guts. "But you have to stand up, or else it means that you're _nothing._ "

Although Chan had faced many people who told him he was worthless, he never believed them. In opposition to the older's statement, he stood up, running to catch the other. "I'm not nothing!" He stated through gritted teeth, even though the pain felt unbearable to him.

"Then catch me." Seungcheol dodged his attack at the last second, grabbing the other's head. Chan's forehead smashed against the wall, a new wound opening as his blood splattered against the once clean white wall. "It hurts, doesn't it?" 

"It does," Chan walked closer towards the other, throwing himself out there as bait, waiting for the older to attack. And if he went by what he had said, he would disable his ability as he attacked Chan, then he'll be able to catch Seungcheol.

Chan was ready, yet the attack didn't come. Had this turned into a waiting game?

"Look here," Seungcheol teased, fishing out a key from his pocket, which in response the boy rose from the floor, reaching for it immediately. However, he had no idea that part of Seungcheol's quirk was that he was also able to make objects phase as well - Chan's hand simply went straight through the key. Chan cursed under his breath, dropping down to the floor to gain more energy.

"You know, Chan, that quirk of yours is pretty great," Seungcheol stared down at the boy, "but what if you can't attack? What will you do when you come face to face with someone without the use of your quirk? You can't win. Your punches don't even land, you're too slow, and you don't have enough stamina. You can't even use that quirk of yours properly! How will I send you to missions when you're not as strong as your other hyungs who deemed themselves useful? What can you do, Lee Chan?"

The boy's eyes twitched. _That's right, get angry, Lee Chan._

"You can't give up now if you want to get stronger."

"I can give up whenever I want," Chan spoke in a low tone. Seungcheol tried to hide his dismay. He thought that this kid had a lot of potential in him, he was a strong boy. Given that, he still would never give up even if Chan said he would. "And I won't give up now!"

 _Good._ Seungcheol exhaled, dodging Chan's attack. The older had subconsciously turned his quirk off in his thought process. "Come on, Chan!" Seungcheol strode over to the other, aiming a punch towards him- before the other caught his fist. For a moment, Seungcheol was surprised, before he smiled. He broke free from Chan's grip, walking away from the boy.

"Heh," Chan managed to choke out, opening his palm to show Seungcheol the object that rested atop. The key to the bracelet. He inserted the object into its slot, breaking free from the restraints. He lunged forward, not even wasting a second to hold the other to prevent him from using his quirk. Chan felt a little light-headed after the sudden attack he had just posed. 

"If you faint, I swear, I'm throwing you out." Seungcheol gripped the arm that Chan had used to latch onto the other, supporting his weight, "you're going to have to come to these sessions every day if you can't use your quirk continuously." 

With great struggled, Chan heaved himself back onto his feet, stumbling back slightly as Seungcheol landed a solid hit on him. "Your next objective is to leave this room. Ready?"

Chan immediately made a run for the door, but Seungcheol stepped into his path, blocking the door from his sight. Chan hissed, sidestepping while he attacked the other.

Seungcheol's games lasted a little longer than he had calculated them to be, but it was all worth it in the end. Chan earned a little more motivation, willpower, and definitely physical strength.

That's the leader of Seventeen Armed Forced for you. He brings only the _best_ out of his members.


	9. Gelato

"It says that the bombing happens at 11:00 am, at Hoesan Crossing. They're targeting... the car that carries the son of Moon Sajan, Moon Jinsae." The file gets snatched away from under Mingyu's nose. Wonwoo read through the file nonchalantly while sipping on his hot chocolate. "Seungcheol said that he got this from our informant just today, at dawn. We don't have much more than this though."

"The bomb isn't targeting Moon Jinsae," Wonwoo stated, quickly opposing Mingyu's statement, "the bomb is a distraction, so the people wouldn't notice the actual murder of Moon Jinsae."

Mingyu stared blankly at Wonwoo, waiting for him to explain the situation further. Wonwoo could only sigh, _is he too dumb to make a deduction himself?_ "Look, we know the route Moon Jinsae's taking. It's straight ahead, passing Heosan crossing. The bomb is speculated to be about two streets away from Heosan crossing. It's clearly just a stupid distraction so the killer can have Moon Jinsae all to himself when the others are occupied with the bomb."

"But a murder would be easily spotted if there isn't a crowd?"

Wonwoo's eyes widen momentarily before they soon melted into a smile. Mingyu noticed how his nose crinkled- and hey! That's the first time he had smiled in front of anyone here! "That's a good point. But, from what I've seen, the butler of Moon Jinsae will be the murderer."

"Why?" Mingyu flipped through the papers until he found the file of Moon Jinsae's butler, Kim Heokoon. "What's with him?" Mingyu raised an eyebrow, pointing to the picture of the butler. He cringed a little, noticing how scruffy the butler looked.

"Kim Heojoon's brother, Kim Heojae, was an activist who once dared to defy their father. Later that week, he was mysteriously murdered, and Kim Heojoon obviously suspected the Moons for his brother's murder. This is his revenge. But the Moons didn't kill Kim Heojae, according to the files that we were given. It says here that Karasu Mafia killed him - he was apparently both an activist and a mafioso at the same time," Wonwoo explained.

"Oh- that's good, you figured it out before we ran out of time!" Mingyu looked up towards the clock, reading 9:27. He immediately set the file down, standing up hurriedly from the couch. "We need to get ready now, there are new clothes for you in the dresser! Bye!"

Dang it! Mingyu wouldn't have time to style his hair properly, pick the right notebook to bring, pick the most suitable fountain pen. Some of the fountain pens are awful, and he would bring the wrong sized notebook if he weren't careful enough. 

Mingyu couldn't create an object bigger than the page that he wrote on. He would have to predict the weapons that he wanted to use for today's case, just so he could pick the right weapon. 

He chose a leather-bound notebook just slightly larger than the size of a gun. This should be enough.

"Wonwoo, you ready?" The sound of Mingyu's footsteps echoed along the hallways as he neared Wonwoo's room. He knocked on the door, met with a much more refreshed Wonwoo. "Oh, good choice of clothing!"

Wonwoo's hair was swept back, still slightly damp from the shower. He wore a black dress shirt underneath a beige coat, matching with his beige slacks. A red string tied up into a ribbon acted as his necktie. Topping it off, he wore a pair of elevated black dress shoes. How formal.

Mingyu reminded himself to get Wonwoo some new clothes once they would be done with their mission.

"Thanks, you too," Wonwoo eyed the other's outfit; white polo, checkered black and white slacks with dress shoes on. "But we don't have much time. We have to locate the bomb and diffuse it, catch Moon Jinsae's vehicle and stop his butler, **as soon as possible.**

At 10:50, the pair were cluelessly walking around the area of the supposed bombing site.

"I'm hungry," Mingyu whined, slouching as he walked beside Wonwoo, "Where the heck is the bomb?! I'm getting tired!"

"This is no time to get tired, Mingyu-ssi-"

"You call me 97 when we're at work."

"-97. We have 12, no, 10 minutes until the bomb explodes. We need to locate it now," Wonwoo spoke, the veins pulsing in his neck. Sometimes, Mingyu wondered how he had managed to land himself a spot in Seventeen. He always seemed to be worn out even before the real deal started.

"Ugh," Mingyu only sighed, prolonging. He cleared his throat, trying to compose himself again, only to hear his stomach grumbling. "Why does Heosan crossing have to be so busy!?"

"H-hey, look over there," Wonwoo stuttered subconsciously. Mingyu looked over to the direction he had pointed in with sparkling eyes. A sleek black Audi, its engine roaring. He only smiled, remembering how excited he sounded when he saw the fancy car, he had yet to see a world full of wonder.

Was there meant to be a blinking object underneath it though? Maybe it was a new sensor or some sort of high tech piece of equipment. Who was the car owner, anyways? 

Mingyu immediately regained his stance once he recognised the two faces seen just behind the window of the car. His eyes widened, immediately calling out for his partner, "Wonwoo! Can you do something about that?!" Mingyu pointed to the black car. Wonwoo looked over to the other, a little confused before looking back towards the car - and his body reacted before his brain could think. 

"No, Wonwoo! I didn't say you should grab the whole damn bomb, then _we'll_ be in danger!" Mingyu cursed seeing the ticking bomb in his hands. Wonwoo could've disposed of the bomb with a black hole, but his body was too surprised for him to think properly. "Hey, don't die, alright?! I have to deal with the others!" 

"I won't," Wonwoo regained his senses, glancing at the bomb that was threatening to explode 9 minutes from now. _It was really set to explode at exactly 11:00, huh?_ Wonwoo smirked, _my deduction was almost perfect._ He quickly formed a black hole with his spare hand, tossing the bomb into the dark area. The long would be long gone, and he could only watch Mingyu - wait, did he just flip the car over?

"Moon Jinsae, run away, now!"

"What's happening- why?!" 

Mingyu groaned, pulling the target out of the upturned car. "Your butler plotted to kill you, because he thought your father was the one who killed his brother. Now go, and call the police!" He sighed in relief as Jinsae did as he was told, crawling up and fleeing the scene.

Mingyu heard the click of a gun behind his head. Slowly, he turned to meet Kim Heojoon's eyes. "I knew I was being followed."

"Mhm, I'm not the one who followed you though. Our informant did," Mingyu replied, glaring at the butler, "put the gun down and you won't get hurt," the boy hissed, but the other didn't budge.

"Get on your knees, if _you_ don't want to get hurt."

Mingyu slowly nodded, kneeling. For now, he would let Heojoon have the upper hand, the control. He had to play weak and obedient, at least until the police arrived. 

"Just kidding," Heojoon laughed, a hint of a mocking tone in his voice, "you took my only chance for revenge. I think you deserve to die just as much as Moon Jinsae-"

Heojoon's supposed-to-be soliloquy was interrupted when Mingyu pulled out a piece of folded paper from his sleeve. The lines on the paper began to glow a brilliant gold as Mingyu undid the folds, until a handgun was formed from the piece of paper. "I think you need to shut up."

 _He was prepared beforehand after all, when did he write that?_ Wonwoo laughed in amazement, approaching the scene that was the cause of all the traffic. The gun in Kim Heojoon's hand was stolen, flying away from him in a stable speed - ending up safely between Wonwoo's fingers. Mingyu stood up, giving him a curt not before turning to face the enemy once again.

Kim Heojoon was surprised, but it seemed as if he somehow expected it. Who would've laughed so casually after encountering quirks for the first time? Only those who know about them well, of course.

The police came just in time, immediately handcuffing Kim Heojoon as they arrived at the scene. Wonwoo and Mingyu were supposed to be just as relieved as the eyewitnesses crowding around the incident area - but they weren't. Quite the complete opposite, actually. The last thing Kim Heojoon had said was _bothering._

"So, you're the ones that Pledis Mafia warned me about?"

* * *

"That's all for today?" Wonwoo questioned, walking side by side with Mingyu, "that didn't seem like much. 

"You'll probably get more tasks tomorrow, I'm tired," Mingyu sighed, before he spotted a familiar shop out of the corner of his eye, "Hey, wanna get gelato?"

"What's that?" Wonwoo spoke again, this time a little more cautiously as he stared in the direction of the gelato shop. What the heck was a gelato?

Mingyu smiled, grabbing Wonwoo's hand, "You'll see. By the way, you did a good job today!" Wonwoo's eyes widened as he was suddenly tugged along, before the two came to a stop inside of the shop, joining the queue in front of the counter. "What flavor do you like?"

"Uh, I'll get what you're getting," Wonwoo awkwardly shifted his leg from one leg to another, "I don't even know what gelato is yet."

"I'm trying to not ruin the element of surprise here!"


	10. Calm

"What the hell even is Sands of Time?!" Jihoon cursed for the millionth time, till Soonyoung finally decided to answer one of his whims. 

"Sand of Time looks like this little glass orb filled with sand. Joshua made it, and it's not like any other sand snowglobe you'll ever see - it allows you to pass your quirk down to inheritors, or an heir you might find worthy of your power," Soonyoung fished out his phone, checking the location of their raid.

"Who even makes a sand snowglobe? Isn't that meant to be called a sandglobe?" Jihoon inquired. Soonyoung shrugged, causing the other to become progressively frustrated - he's got a mission to complete, but his partner wouldn't cooperate or tell him any details. How was this meant to be accomplished?! "At least fill me in with details!"

"I'm busy right now, can I ignore you some other time?"

Jihoon laughed in disbelief, was he trying to be sassy or something? Hey, at least Jihoon was trying to get the job done as much as he didn't want to do it.

"Okay, you can annoy me now, we're here." Soonyoung paused in his steps, turning to face the building. He sighed in relief, "My GPS worked!"

Jihoon was frozen.

"Yo shrimpy, what's up?" Don't you have some sort of sarcastic comment?" Soonyoung laughed, turning to stare at the other. Soonyoung's face falls, before scrunching. He didn't know whether or not he should ask him why he had stopped. It was a new expression that he had seen from Jihoon - and somehow it was even more terrifying than the scowl he was previously wearing.

 _The people who tortured me for my entire childhood, they're in there!_ Jihoon wanted to cry out, but instead he swallowed back the lump in his throat. Doing so would only alert the people inside the building

"This... this is where I'm from," Jihoon's gaze darkened, gently gesturing towards the building. "I can't do this. If they see me, they'll pull me back into that hellhole. I only agreed to join your team so I wouldn't be locked back up in there."

 _Oh, he was one of Fukuro Mafia's victims._ Soonyoung sighed, gazing softly at the smaller boy. "Remember my quirk, mind control? I controlled your bodies before through your minds since it's what tells the body what to do. My quirk involves brainwashing. Just keep your head down for now, and if we need to face anyone, I can brainwash them, since this is a raid, not a face to face thing," Soonyoung reminded, "got it?" 

"But what if there are too many people who recognise me at first glance? Won't that be too difficult for you? They'll catch me! How about you get the Sands of Time without me?" Jihoon proposed, tapping his foot in a panicked state, "what if they throw me into the basement again? I don't want to go back there."

"Relax, shrimpy, you have a quirk and you can use it against them, right?" Soonyoung softly placed a hand on Jihoon's shoulder. Although he flinched at the sudden touch, the tension slowly simmered down. "You'll be able to fight them, okay? Change of plans, let's bolt in there, get the Sands of Time back and get out of here!" Soonyoung's hand fell from his shoulder to reach for his hand.

 _His hand is so cold,_ he had caught himself thinking.

"N-no! We won't be fast enough. We're going to get caught, and I'm going to get locked up again!" Jihoon protested again. In return, Soonyoung only tightened his grip on the others hand.

The boy chuckled, gazing directly at Jihoon's honey eyes as he spoke. "I'm not going to let you get stolen away from me, shrimpy. Trust me, even if it's just on this one."

Jihoon exhaled quietly, looking down momentarily. In his head, he formulated a plan, his grip on Soonyoung's hand subconsciously tightening. "Soonyoung, as you saw in my demonstration, I can move pretty quickly. Just hang on to my hand and you'll be fine. Do you know the exact location of the sand snowglobe?"

Soonyoung gave the other a look of sympathy, "The basement." He had figured that Jihoon might've had some bad memories there; what would you expect from an orphan squandering mafia in dire need of guards who put their lives on the line and usually die first in battles?

"Okay," Jihoon simply nodded, surprisingly calm. He closed his eyes, undoing the familiar lock on the other side of the door with his quirk. Soonyoung only got a glimpse of the front desk before Jihoon zoomed right in and down into the basement in no time.

 _Woah._ Jihoon was literally the definition of speed. Soonyoung would've liked to stay and admire it a little longer, but he didn't have much time to think about it as they were in the middle of a mission.

"Wait, there are guards here."

"Jihoon, lift them off the ground, now! I'll control them to stop them from calling backup, go and find the Sands of Time!" The boy did as he was told, dashing from place to place to look for the small object. He knew very well that the basement was a whole ass fully equipped underground lair, and there were several rooms that he needed to search through. This may take some time.

Soonyoung, meanwhile, was very focused. He was keeping the guards controlled while dodging the bullets that came from those who weren't controlled yet. "Did you really have to shoot? Ugh, now backup's going to be alerted!"

Finally, Soonyoung had all the guards under his control. He had received one or two gunshots, but they were rubber bullets anyway. He rubbed off the pain while waiting for the backup to come - which was almost immediately. He got right back into action.

"Stop right there! Put your hands where I can see them!" A braver guard dared to defy Soonyoung. He only smirked, as if the battle was already won before it even started.

"Jihoon! You can let them down now!" The guards fell to the ground one by one, still controlled by Soonyoung. They formed a protective barrier around him, waiting for a command. "Okay, my minions! Shoot away!"

The sound of gunshots tore into the silence, blood splattering across the walls. 

Jihoon only came back after a whole hour, which slightly irritated Soonyoung - the backup just kept on coming out of nowhere, and Soonyoung had to put up with them. "Is this it?"

Soonyoung gave Jihoon a nod, confirming that he did indeed find the Sands of Time and not just some random sand snowglobe. "You took too long!"

"There were a whole lot of rooms, dumbass!"

"Fine, then let's go, now!"

Jihoon took a deep breath, lifting all the guards in the room into the air, grabbing Soonyoung's hand and dashing out. Soonyoung hooted, feeling like he was flying at this speed. "Shut your mouth, you're so embarrassing!"

"They can't see us anyway, we're going too fast!" Soonyoung cackled, "and I love it!"

* * *

Jihoon came to a stop, breathing heavily as they reached Seventeen's base. Soonyoung got back to his feet, fixing his dishevelled hair before entering the building. 

The pair went to speak to Seungcheol about how the mission went - earning praises at how fast they completed it.

"Okay, now we need to do a report. What is this, school?" Jihoon folded his arms over his chest, grunting at the taller.

"You do it yourself," Soonyoung spoke as he entered the elevator, Jihoon following along. "We have brains so we can reports, unlike you."

"I'm not an idiot, you dumbass!" The elevator dinged as the words left his mouth, the two squabbling as they walked out the elevator. The 4th floor was revealed to contain many electronics and machines, probably for missions and for the process of creating reports.

"This is Joshua's life. Don't destroy anything, shrimpy." Soonyoung sat down in front of a computer, before throwing a sample document at Jihoon. The boy caught it with a grunt, flipping through the pages before sitting down in front of a computer opposite Soonyoung. "If you don't understand something, don't be shy. Ask me, I'll make sure to tease you about it-"

"Blah blah blah, just do your work!" Jihoon clasps his hands over his ears, making Soonyoung laugh, "don't your mouth ever stop babbling?!"

A small smile tugged at his lips while he typed away. It was a little difficult trying to think about something else while doing a report for the first time, but he managed to multitask. What other thing was he thinking about, anyway?

_"I'm not going to let you get stolen away from me, shrimpy. Trust me, even if it's just on this one."_

Soonyoung was a big jerk, Jihoon hated him for that. He didn't like being with somebody who would answer his rhetorical questions, except for that one time earlier today.

Soonyoung filled Jihoon's empty, shaky hands with warmth, and he liked it, Jihoon liked being by his side. 

Soonyoung might not be so bad after all.


	11. Strategy

The ride to the location of the mission was around 30 minutes, and Jeonghan kept on flirting with Jisoo. He wouldn't stop, he took _every_ chance he could to speak or flirt with Jisoo. The other didn't like it as much, however, since he had no idea what Jeonghan was trying to pull off with this.

"Jeonghan-"

"Yes, my love?"

"Er- Jeonghan, we're here. Get out the car, bring your weapon and get ready." Joshua spoke, gently opening the door. Once he stepped out, Jeonghan immediately came forward, clinging to him. "What the-" Jisoo cut himself off with a sigh. 

This was the first time that Jeonghan had actually initiated such intimate skinship with Jisoo that he could feel the outline of his figure. But that wasn't the only thing that Jeonghan felt under his coat; what they were said a lot that he never knew about Jisoo.

"Are those... guns on you? I thought you were unarmed!" Jeonghan spoke, his grip loosening. His smile grew wider, before laughing. "That's so cool! You didn't tell me you were a badass!"

Joshua smiled coyly, rubbing his nape. "I- well- that's my only means of attacking the enemies," he stopped walking, causing the other to nearly bump into him. "Jeonghan, this was meant to be a stakeout, but recently, the leader of this mafia 'surrendered' to the authorities. We're here to pick them up and decide what to do with them. About a month ago, we captured a lot of his men and lackeys, but they probably still have men inside. So be ready for like... 20 against two."

Jeonghan's eyebrows furrowed, but he nodded nonetheless. "But my love! We need to have a strategy, still," he fished out his small dagger from his leg strap. He played with it in his hands, amazed at Hansol's weaponry. He said that he didn't need it anymore so he gave it to Jeonghan - but it was still in its best condition!

"We do, yeah," Jisoo placed his index finger and thumb on his chin, thinking. Jeonghan cooed at him, causing him to chuckle and turn away. "Technically, Pledis media has control over this one, but this mafia surrendered - so did Pledis mafia approve of that, or does this mafia move on its own? Or what if this is really a trap?" 

"Honeybunch, slow down," Jeonghan chuckled, scraping his nails against the blade, "I'm kinda lost."

"Pledis Mafia is our biggest threat. There are, however, three mafias that branch out, handled by Pledis. Karasu Mafia, Fukuro Mafia - the biggest one, and Neko Mafia. Karasy Mafia is the one we're dealing with today," Jisoo explained patiently. "Okay, here's the plan I thought of. if you have a plan, please do tell me - but here's mine for now."

* * *

Jisoo entered the trashed basement of apartment 49, where Karasu Mafia's hideout was located. He was greeted with three identical men guarding an orange haired boy sitting in a lovesat as if it was a throne. The boy smile, lifting his head to watch the newcomer. 

"Ah, hello, I see that you finally responded to my call," he spoke, "was if fun? Winning over us?" 

" _Kihyun,_ if you want a clean operation, spare the small talk for another time. Come with me. No funny business, and nobody gets injured," Joshua spoke calmly, but his words weren't exactly the most suitable choice for a soft approach. His tone of voice was rather notable about him. The man on the throne stood, crossing his arms and raising an eyebrow at Jisoo. "We're not restrained and we have weapons. You think we wouldn't attack you?" Kihyun questioned, laughing bitterly, "you must have a lot of trust in us then. What a kind Seventeen member you are!"

"They say that," Jisoo reached a hand into his coat, gripping on to a gun, ready to pull it out anytime. "Let's go."

"Stupid, too. You're also a stupid member of Seventeen," Kihyun pulled out his own gun, shooting directly at Jisoo. He missed the first time, but nailed a vital part the second time he fired. The orange hair laughed as if he were a maniac - which he probably was. 

The Jisoo that Kihyun had shot in the head now faded, turning into nothing less than a glitching series of zeros and ones before he was completely gone. Suddenly, Kihyun heard a click, and the cold barrel of a gun being pointed to his head. He chuckled nervously, finally figuring out Jisoo's ability. He realised that he had been speaking to an illusion all along - which he didn't expect, since he didn't know Jisoo's ability, after all. 

"Wow," Kihyun turned to his left, facing the real Jisoo, "your ability is making illusions. That's a good plan, I admit - but, I still have a gun, _and_ my henchman." Previously, the three men were scattered, but now, they were circling around the pair. The guards suddenly duplicated, and Jisoo realised that there was only really _one_ guard here. That guard had a cloning ability. _I hope Jeonghan figures it out._

"Well, I have Jeonghan," Jisoo chuckled, disabling the illusion he set on Jeonghan that he had set so he wouldn't be seen so soon.

"Aw, that was soo sweet!" Jeonghan giggled. Jisoo flushed, clearly still not used to Jeonghan's random flirting.

"Go get it-" Jisoo was cut off when Kihyun slapped away the gun pointed to his head. He turned his attention back to the boy, fishing out another gun, but he only chuckled, finally using his ability. 

"Demon Snow!" A demoness with white, long, silky hair appeared, clothed in a white ankle-length dress upon Kihyun's call. "Slaughter them!"

 _Oh,_ his ability was similar to Junhui's. Damn, could life get any easier than this? It was easy to trick demons, thus making it a breeze to attack. He can handle this, but can Jeonghan handle the henchman?

Jisoo hoped so.

* * *

"Thank you, officer," Jisoo bowed towards Hyunwoo, the police officer that Seventeen was affiliated with. Out of the corner of his eyes, he spotted Kihyun and his henchmen getting dragged into the police car. "You came almost immediately."

"You say that like it's a bad thing," Hyunwoo chuckled, scratching his nape, "I see that you have a new partner, Joshua? You replaced DK awfully fast."

Jisoo frowned. "The new guy is just as annoying, believe me. He flirts endlessly," he rolled his eyes, earning a laugh from the police officer. "We'll get going now, officer. Have a good afternoon."

"Yeah, goodbye!" Hyunwoo exclaimed, turning and walking back to his car. Jisoo stood in his spot, waiting, and watching until all the cars had left. He turned to check if Jeonghan was ready to leave. 

The boy was seen wiping the blood off his weapon using his sleeve. Jisoo tsked, approaching him. "Hey, you aren't meant to wipe it off on your shirt."

"Whatever, sweetheart!" Jeonghan grinned, walking over to Jisoo's car. He hops inside, flashing Jisoo a smile as he sighed, sliding into the driver's side. 

"That was a good job, Jeonghan. Are you alright?"

"He was strong, but I managed, since my ability is suited to these kind of strong attacks." Jeonghan tugged his shirt a little, displaying the tears and dried blood on the shirt, but there weren't any wounds underneath. Jisoo nodded, starting the car after confirming he was fine. "You're worried about me! Oh, that sounded so nice babe! Aw, you're so caring!"

 _Babe? Seriously!?_ Jisoo smiled with clenched teeth, obviously not pleased. On the other hand, Jeonghan wasn't oblivious, he saw that - but he just laughed it off. 

He just like Jisoo for his appearance, anyway. His flirting didn't really mean anything, he was just messing around, after all.


	12. Issues

"What's the plan, The8?" Junhui called, jogging to catch up with Minghao. "Hey, talk to me!"

"This is the plan." The boy stopped, searching the busy port to find the familiar logo of the enemy. Once he spots the cargo ship with the Pledis Mafia logo printed neatly on one side, he held his hand out, a flaring beam of fire setting the ship on fire. He watched nonchalantly as the people nearby began to panic, "Done. Now there's nothing more to smuggle."

"That's not how we're meant to- Minghao!" Junhui cut himself off at the sight of the said boy slipping in a puddle right in front of him. He dropped down into a crouch to check if he was alright, speaking in a worried tone, "Are you okay? You have a back injury - does it hurt? Do you want to drop by the hospital?" Junhui offered him a hand.

Minghao only slapped his hand away, standing up by himself with a little struggle. "You can't call me by my real name when we're at work. I thought you knew that." He brushed off the wet soil from his outfit. "I can just ask Jeonghan to heal it or something if it hurts. Let's go home."

"But he'd have to make it worse-"

"Yes, and you don't need to care."

Wow, Minghao really hated Junhui with a burning passion today. Of course, the two always bickered with one another - but sometimes, Minghao absolutely _despised_ Junhui. He shut the boy off and wanted nothing to do with him. Sometimes, they did get along though. This was probably just a bad day.

Junhui never knew why he was like that.

* * *

Minghao cursed for the millionth time. Jeonghan had probably broken his spine in half by now. "Be careful you idiot!"

"I can't 'be careful' when I'm trying to make your injury worse!" Jeonghan shot back, standing up from his bed, stretching his arms out. Minghao, who was lying on his stomach, turned around to check what Jeonghan was doing, only becoming more alarmed.

"What are you doing!?"

"Okay, I might have to kill you for a sec, but I promise I'll heal you after. Ready?" Minghao hurriedly began to protest as Jeonghan flipped him over, elbowing the injured part of his back. Minghao's protests slowly died down, and Jeonghan took that as his cue to heal him, fulfilling his promise. 

Minghao gasped, shooting up. "Okay, the first part hurt like hell, but now that it's fine, it feels good. Thanks." He sat up straight, stretching out his back to check is it was really okay, smiling once he realised the pain was gone. "Why did I not notice that puddle, anyway?!" He scoffed.

Jeonghan frowned. A smile looked good on Minghao.

"Why didn't you just drop by the hospital? You wouldn't need to experience this much pain if you had just gone there," Jeonghan rubbed the back of his neck, "did Junhui at least ask if you were fine?"

"He did, he offered to go to the hospital too," He spat. Jeonghan knew better than to ask another question, so he just patiently listened to Minghao. "But I didn't want to go. I don't need his concern." Those were his last words before Minghao stood up, leaving the room.

Jeonghan sighed, standing up as well. It was something he would make sure to investigate further, but for now, he still had a report to do.

* * *

"Thank you for assisting me, cotton candy!" Jeonghan wooed, clinging to Jisoo's arm. The boy chuckled nervously, trying to pull away from him. Jeonghan let go soon enough, turning back to the screen of the computer he was working on.

"Jfc, when will Jeonghan stop flirting?!" Seokmin poked his head out from around the wall, irritated. "It was quiet and serene before you two came in!"

Vernon, who was typing away at his desktop pulled out an earbud from one ear, "Did you really just say jfc?" To which Seokmin nodded proudly. "You're cancelled." 

Seokmin laughed, turning back to what he was doing; pully out the jammed paper in the printer. He needed to keep it lowkey or else Jisoo would notice, which would lead to getting himself grounded from the fourth floor that Jisoo basically owned.

"Is everyone done with their reports?" Jisoo asked, turning his gaze up towards the wall clock. "It's almost time for dinner. I'll ask HEUSC to print your reports out for you, then we can pack up and go."

"You named your virtual assistant HEUSC. Yeah, totally not obvious that you got it from Balance Unlimited. God, you're such a web," Junhui commented. With a glimmer of hope in his eyes, he looked over towards Minghao who sat across him - but he didn't get the reaction he wanted. The boy didn't even so much glance in his direction.

Minghao liked anime just as much as Jisoo, and he would usually jump out to back up Jisoo in times like these. However, Minghao _really_ wasn't in the mood today, no matter how hard Junhui tried.

* * *

Jihoon had somewhat expected an over the top dinner, overpriced foods served on the elegant table while they conversed over politics or something. After all, he did have steak last night, and was expecting something like it today - but there wasn't any on the table.

Instead, there were five boxes of pizza and various bottles of different soda. Jihoon chuckled, walking over towards the table. At least the food was still way better than what they served back at the orphanage.

"So, how did everybody's missions go?!" Seokmin roared, jumping around with a slice of pizza in hand. He was one of the people who weren't entrusted with a mission, so he craved some action. "I want to know!"

Junhui stood up from his spot, turning to leave in silence. Luckily, nobody had noticed him slip out of the kitchen and towards the bathroom, alone. Or so he had expected. At that very time Minghao was also thinking about avoiding the conversation, so having no idea Junhui was already there, he left for the bathroom. Wow, it was as if fate wouldn't let either of them live in peace.

"Wonwoo was really selfless today," Mingyu raised his hand, earning 'ooh's and 'woah's around the table. "The bomb was planted underneath the car, so I told him to do something about it while I confronted the butler - and the bomb ends up in his hands."

"If he hadn't told me to not die, my thought process would've stopped and I probably would've hugged the bomb and crouched down to lessen the impact of the explosion in hopes of saving the people nearby," Wonwoo admitted, "I panicked." 

"My boy's really a perfect fit for Seventeen! I knew it!" Hansol cheered, before receiving boos. (Hansol wished that instead of boos, he got Boo Seungkwan instead.)

"Kihyun's caught and Karasu Mafia's officially gone from our list." Jisoo spoke, pushing the rim of his glasses that hung dangerously low up. "Jeonghan had to fight a man with a cloning quirk. He did well, too."

"Aw, don't give me all the credit, babe!" Jeonghan set his cup of soda down to cling to Jisoo's arm. He laughed nervously, trying to shake him off. "You did well, too! You were like, fighting the boss level!"

"So is this babe and flirting thing going on real or...?" Jihoon inquired. "I'm not interested, it's just really disgusting and I wanted to know if I'm going to have to see it everyday." 

"You will, Jihoonie!" Jeonghan gushed, squeezing the other's arm. Jisoo winced, to which Seungcheol laughed at. "Get used to it! Me and my love will be doing this everyday!"

"Eww, a couple! Scram!" Seungkwan pinched his nose as if there was an unpleasant fume wafting around. His actions gained laughs all around the room.

"W-we're not a couple!"

"Ouch, sugarpie!"

"We've had enough of that," Jihoon grunted, the dying laughter returning. "We found Sands of Time."

"Yeah! Shrimpy was _so_ fast and we traveled in a blink of an eye! I got shot with rubber bullets, too, but I beat all the guards and made them my minions!" Soonyoung did his best villain cackle. "I'm so powerful!"

"Stop calling me shrimpy-~" Jihoon sighed, biting down the last of his pizza. From the corner of his eye, he noticed Chan eating with a happy expression, yet he wasn't speaking at all. "Hey, you, kid! Did you finally realise that you were being unnecessarily positive?!" 

"Ah... Jihoon hyung," Chan smiled, turning his head to face him. "Today was hell..."

"Let me guess, Seungcheol led you into that white room to train with you. He socked you as his first move," Mingyu commented, "you should've brought a knife. When he did that to me, I just happened to be carrying a swiss knife with me so he let me go."

Chan looked enlightened, until he met Seungcheol's eyes. The boy sighed, nodding sadly as the other members laughed. "You won't improve if you do that, Chan! Don't listen to him."

"You'll improve in outsmarting idiots."

"We're trying to improve your combat skills and stamina. Not what he said," Seungcheol glared at the tall man. "Mingyu, you're not off the hook. I'll deal with you later. 


End file.
